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The Naval War of 1812

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Jackson drew back about three miles, where he halted and threw up
a long line of breastworks, reaching from the river to the morass;
he left a body of mounted riflemen to watch the British. All the
English troops reached the field on the day after the fight; but
the rough handling that the foremost had received made them cautious
about advancing. Moreover, the left division was kept behind the
levee all day by the _Carolina_, which opened upon them whenever
they tried to get away; nor was it till dark that they made their
escape out of range of her cannon. Christmas-day opened drearily
enough for the invaders. Although they were well inland, the schooner,
by greatly elevating her guns, could sometimes reach them, and she
annoyed them all through the day [Footnote: "While sitting at table,
a loud shriek was heard.... A shot had taken effect on the body of
an unfortunate soldier... who was fairly cut in two at the lower
portion of the belly!" (Gleig, p. 306.) ]; and as the Americans had
cut the levee in their front, it at one time seemed likely that they
would be drowned out. However, matters now took a turn for the better.
The river was so low that the cutting of the levee instead of flooding
the plain [Footnote: Latour, 113.] merely filled the shrunken bayous,
and rendered it easy for the British to bring up their heavy guns;
and on the same day their trusted leader, Sir Edward Packenham, arrived
to take command in person, and his presence gave new life to the
whole army. A battery was thrown up during the two succeeding nights
on the brink of the river opposite to where the _Carolina_ lay; and
at dawn a heavy cannonade of red-hot shot and shell was opened upon
her from eleven guns and a mortar. [Footnote: Gleig, 307. The Americans
thought the battery consisted of 5 18- and 12-pounders; Gleig says 9
field-pieces (9--and 6-pounders), 2 howitzers, and a mortar.] She
responded briskly, but very soon caught fire and blew up, to the
vengeful joy of the troops whose bane she had been for the past few
days. Her destruction removed the last obstacle to the immediate
advance of the army; but that night her place was partly taken
by the mounted riflemen, who rode down to the British lines, shot
the sentries, engaged the out-posts, and kept the whole camp in a
constant state of alarm. [Footnote: Gleig, 310.] In the morning Sir
Edward Packenham put his army in motion, and marched on New Orleans.
When he had gone nearly three miles he suddenly, and to his great
surprise, stumbled on the American army. Jackson's men had worked
like beavers, and his breastworks were already defended by over three
thousand fighting men, [Footnote: 3,282 men in all, according to
the Adjutant-General's return for Dec. 28, 1814.] and by half a dozen
guns, and moreover were flanked by the corvette _Louisiana_, anchored
in the stream. No sooner had the heads of the British columns appeared
than they were driven back by the fire of the American batteries;
the field-pieces, mortars, and rocket guns were then brought up,
and a sharp artillery duel took place. The motley crew of the
_Louisiana_ handled their long ship guns with particular effect;
the British rockets proved of but little service [Footnote: Latour,
121.]; and after a stiff fight, in which they had two field-pieces
and a light mortar dismounted, [Footnote: Gleig, 314. The official
returns show a loss of 18 Americans and 58 British, the latter suffering
much less than Jackson supposed. Lossing, in his "Field Book of the
War of 1812," not only greatly overestimates the British loss, but
speaks as if this was a serious attack, which it was not. Packenham's
army, while marching, unexpectedly came upon the American intrenchment,
and recoiled at once, after seeing that his field-pieces were unable
to contend with the American artillery.] the British artillerymen
fell back on the infantry. Then Packenham drew off his whole army
out of cannon shot, and pitched his camp facing the intrenched lines
of the Americans. For the next three days the British battalions
lay quietly in front of their foe, like wolves who have brought to
bay a gray boar, and crouch just out of reach of his tusks, waiting
a chance to close in.

Packenham, having once tried the strength of Jackson's position,
made up his mind to breach his works and silence his guns with a
regular battering train. Heavy cannon were brought up from the ships,
and a battery was established on the bank to keep in check the
_Louisiana_. Then, on the night of the last day of the year, strong
parties of workmen were sent forward, who, shielded by the darkness,
speedily threw up stout earthworks, and mounted therein fourteen
heavy guns, [Footnote: 10 long 18s and 4 24-pound carronades (James,
ii, 368). Gleig says (p. 318), "6 batteries, mounting 30 pieces of
heavy cannon." This must include the "brigade of field-pieces" of
which James speaks. 9 of these, 9--and 6-pounders, and 2 howitzers,
had been used in the attack on the _Carolina_; and there were also
2 field-mortars and 2 3-pounders present; and there must have been
1 other field-piece with the army, to make up the 30 of which Gleig
speaks.] to face the thirteen [Footnote: viz.: 1 long 32, 3 long 24s,
1 long 18, 3 long 12s, 3 long 6s, a 6-inch howitzer, and a small
carronade (Latour, 147); and on the same day Patterson had in his
water-battery 1 long 24 and 2 long 12s (see his letter of Jan. 2d),
making a total of 16 American guns.] mounted in Jackson's lines,
which were but three hundred yards distant.

New Year's day dawned very misty. As soon as the haze cleared off
the British artillerymen opened with a perfect hail of balls,
accompanied by a cloud of rockets and mortar shells. The Americans
were taken by surprise, but promptly returned the fire, with equal
fury and greater skill. Their guns were admirably handled; some by
the cool New England seamen lately forming the crew of the _Carolina_,
others by the fierce creole privateersmen of Lafitte, and still others
by trained artillerymen of the regular army. They were all old hands,
who in their time had done their fair share of fighting, and were
not to be flurried by any attack, however unexpected. The British
cannoneers plied their guns like fiends, and fast and thick fell their
shot; more slowly but with surer aim, their opponents answered them.
[Footnote: The British historian, Alison, says ("History of Europe,"
by Sir Archibald Alison, 9th edition, Edinburgh and London, 1852, vol.
xii. p. 141): "It was soon found that the enemy's guns were so superior
in weight and number, that nothing was to be expected from that species
of attack." As shown above, at this time Jackson had on both sides of
the river 16 guns; the British, according to both James and Gleig,
between 20 and 30. Jackson's long guns were 1 32, 4 24s, 1 18, 5 12s,
and 3 6s, throwing in all 224 pounds; Packenham had 10 long 18s. 2
long 3s, and from 6 to 10 long 9s and 6s, thus throwing between 228
and 258 pounds of shot; while Jackson had but 1 howitzer and 1 carronade
to oppose 4 carronades, 2 howitzers, 2 mortars, and a dozen rocket guns;
so in both number and weight of guns the British were greatly superior.]
The cotton bales used in the American embrasures caught fire, and blew
up two powder caissons; while the sugar hogsheads of which the British
batteries were partly composed were speedily shattered and splintered
in all directions. Though the British champions fought with unflagging
courage and untiring energy, and though they had long been versed
in war, yet they seemed to lack the judgment to see and correct their
faults, and most of their shot went too high. [Footnote: In strong
contrast to Alison, Admiral Codrington, an eye-witness, states the
true reason of the British failure: ("Memoir of Admiral Sir Edward
Codrington," by Lady Bourchier, London, 1873, vol. i, p. 334.) "On
the 1st we had our batteries ready, by severe labor, in situation,
from which the artillery people were, as a matter of course, to destroy
and silence the opposing batteries, and give opportunity for a
well-arranged storm. But, instead, not a gun of the enemy appeared
to suffer, and our own firing too high was not discovered till" too
late. "Such a failure in this boasted arm was not to be expected,
and I think it a blot on the artillery escutcheon."] On the other
hand, the old sea-dogs and trained regulars who held the field against
them, not only fought their guns well and skilfully from the beginning,
but all through the action kept coolly correcting their faults and
making more sure their aim. Still, the fight was stiff and well
contested. Two of the American guns were disabled and 34 of their
men were killed or wounded. But one by one the British cannon were
silenced or dismounted, and by noon their gunners had all been driven
away, with the loss of 78 of their number.

The _Louisiana_ herself took no part in this action. Patterson had
previously landed some of her guns on the opposite bank of the river,
placing them in a small redoubt. To match these the British also
threw up some works and placed in them heavy guns, and all through
New Year's day a brisk cannonade was kept up across the river between
the two water-batteries, but with very little damage to either side.

For a week after this failure the army of the invaders lay motionless
facing the Americans. In the morning and evening the defiant, rolling
challenge of the English drums came throbbing up through the gloomy
cypress swamps to where the grim riflemen of Tennessee were lying
behind their log breastworks, and both day and night the stillness
was at short intervals broken by the sullen boom of the great guns
which, under Jackson's orders, kept up a never-ending fire on the
leaguering camp of his foes. [Footnote: Gleig, 322.] Nor could the
wearied British even sleep undisturbed; all through the hours of
darkness the outposts were engaged in a most harassing bush warfare
by the backwoodsmen, who shot the sentries, drove in the pickets,
and allowed none of those who were on guard a moment's safety or
freedom from alarm. [Footnote: Gleig, 323.]

But Packenham was all the while steadily preparing for his last and
greatest stroke. He had determined to make an assault in force as
soon as the expected reinforcements came up; nor, in the light of
his past experience in conflict with foes of far greater military
repute than those now before him, was this a rash resolve. He had
seen the greatest of Napoleon's marshals, each in turn, defeated
once and again, and driven in headlong flight over the Pyrenees by
the Duke of Wellington; now he had under him the flower of the troops
who had won those victories; was it to be supposed for a moment that
such soldiers [Footnote: Speaking of Souk's overthrow a few months
previous to this battle, Napier says (v, 209): "He was opposed to
one of the greatest generals of the world, at the head of unconquerable
troops. For what Alexander's Macedonians were at Arbela, Hannibal's
Africans at Cannae, Caesar's Romans at Pharsalia, Napoleon's Guards
at Austerlitz--such were Wellington's British soldiers at this
period.... Six years of uninterrupted success had engrafted on their
natural strength and fierceness a confidence that made them invincible."]
who, in a dozen battles, had conquered the armies and captured the
forts of the mighty French emperor, would shrink at last from a mud
wall guarded by rough backwoodsmen? That there would be loss of life
in such an assault was certain; but was loss of life to daunt men
who had seen the horrible slaughter through which the stormers moved
on to victory at Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajos, and San Sebastian? At the
battle of Toulouse an English army, of which Packenham's troops then
formed part, had driven Soult from a stronger position than was now
to be assailed, though he held it with a veteran infantry. Of a surety,
the dashing general who had delivered the decisive blow on the stricken
field of Salamanca, [Footnote: It was about 5 o'clock when Packenham
fell upon Thomieres.... From the chief to the lowest soldier, all
[of the French] felt that they were lost, and in an instant Packenham,
the most frank and gallant of men, commenced the battle. The British
columns formed lines as they marched, and the French gunners, standing
up manfully for the honor of their country, sent showers of grape
into the advancing masses, while a crowd of light troops poured in
a fire of musketry, under cover of which the main body endeavored
to display a front. But, bearing onwards through the skirmishers
with the might of a giant, Packenham broke the half-formed lines
into fragments, and sent the whole in confusion upon the advancing
supports... Packenham, bearing onwards with conquering violence,...
formed one formidable line two miles in advance of where Packenham
had first attacked; and that impetuous officer, with unmitigated
strength, still pressed forward, spreading terror and disorder on
the enemy's left. (Napier, iv, 57, 58. 59.)] who had taken part in
the rout of the ablest generals and steadiest soldiers of Continental
Europe, was not the man to flinch from a motley array of volunteers,
militia, and raw regulars, led by a grizzled old bush-fighter, whose
name had never been heard of outside of his own swamps, and there
only as the savage destroyer of some scarcely more savage Indian
tribes. Moreover, Packenham was planning a flank attack. Under his
orders a canal was being dug from the head of the bayou up which
the British had come, across the plain to the Mississippi. This was
to permit the passage of a number of ships' boats, on which one
division was to be ferried to the opposite bank of the river, where
it was to move up, and, by capturing the breastworks and water-battery
on the west side, flank Jackson's main position on the east side.
[Footnote: "A particular feature in the assault was our cutting a
canal into the Mississippi... to convey a force to the right bank,
which... might surprise the enemy's batteries on that side. I do
not know how far this measure was relied on by the general, but,
as he ordered and made his assault at daylight, I imagine he did
not place much dependence upon it." (Codrington, i, 335.) ] When
this canal was nearly finished the expected reinforcements, two
thousand strong, under General Lambert, arrived, and by the evening
of the 7th all was ready for the attack, which was to be made at
daybreak on the following morning. Packenham had under him nearly
10,000 [Footnote: James (ii, 373) says the British "rank and file"
amounted to 8,153 men, including 1,200 seamen and marines. The only
other place where he speaks of the latter is in recounting the attack
on the right bank, when he says "about 200" were with Thornton, while
both the admirals, Cochrane and Codrington, make the number 300; so
he probably underestimates their number throughout, and at least 300
can be added, making 1,500 sailors and marines, and a total of 8,453.
This number is corroborated by Major McDougal. the officer who received
Sir Edward's body in his arms when was killed; he says (as quoted
in the "Memoirs of British Generals Distinguished During the Peninsular
War," by John William Cole, London. 1856, vol. ii, p. 364) that after
the battle and the loss of 2,036 men, "we had still an effective
force of 6,400," making a total before the attack of 8,436 rank and
file. Calling it 8,450, and adding (see ante, note 10) 13.3 per cent,
for the officers, sergeants, and trumpeters, we get about 9,600 men.]
fighting men; 1,500 of these, under Colonel Thornton were to cross
the river and make the attack on the west bank. Packenham himself
was to superintend the main assault, on the east bank, which was to
be made by the British right under General Gibbs, while the left
moved forward under General Keane, and General Lambert commanded
the reserve.[Footnote: Letter of Major-General John Lambert to Earl
Bathurst, Jan. 10, 1815.] Jackson's [Footnote: 4,698 on the east bank,
according to the official report of Adjutant-General Robert Butler,
for the morning of January 8th. The details are as follow:

At batteries..................................................... 154
Command of Col. Ross (671 regulars and 742 Louisiana militia)... 1413
Command of General Carroll (Tennesseeans, and somewhat under 500
Kentuckians).................................................... 1562
General Coffee's command (Tennesseeans, and about 250 Louisiana
militia)........................................................ 813
Major Hind's dragoons........................................... 230
Col. Slaughter's command........................................ 526
_____
Total, 4,698

These figures tally almost exactly with those given by Major Latour,
except that he omits all reference to Col. Slaughter's command, thus
reducing the number to about 4,100. Nor can I anywhere find any allusion
to Slaughter's command as taking part in the battle; and it is possible
that these troops were the 500 Kentuckians ordered across the river
by Jackson; in which case his whole force but slightly exceeded 5,000 men.

On the west bank there were 546 Louisiana militia--260 of the First
regiment, 176 of the Second, and 110 of the Sixth. Jackson had ordered
500 Kentucky troops to be sent to reinforce them; only 400 started,
of whom but 180 had arms. Seventy more received arms from the Naval
Arsenal; and thus a total of 250 armed men were added to the 546
already on the west bank.] position was held by a total of 5,500 men.
[Footnote: Two thousand Kentucky militia had arrived, but in wretched
plight; only 500 had arms, though pieces were found for about 250 more;
and thus Jackson's army received an addition of 750 very badly
disciplined soldiers.

"Hardly one third of the Kentucky troops, so long expected, are armed,
and the arms they have are not fit for use." (Letter of Gen. Jackson
to the Secretary of War, Jan. 3d.) Having kept a constant watch on
the British, Jackson had rightly concluded that they would make the
main attack on the east bank, and had, accordingly, kept the bulk of
his force on that side. His works consisted simply of a mud breastwork,
with a ditch in front of it, which stretched in a straight line from
the river on his right across the plain, and some distance into the
morass that sheltered his left. There was a small, unfinished redoubt
in front of the breastworks on the river bank. Thirteen pieces of
artillery were mounted on the works. [Footnote: Almost all British
writers underestimate their own force and enormously magnify that
of the Americans. Alison, for example, quadruples Jackson's _relative_
strength, writing: "About 6,000 combatants were on the British side;
a slender force to attack double their number, intrenched to the
teeth in works bristling with bayonets and loaded with heavy artillery."
Instead of double, he should have said half; the bayonets only
"bristled" metaphorically, as less than a quarter of the Americans
were armed with them; and the British breaching batteries had a heavier
"load" of artillery than did the American lines. Gleig says that "to
come nearer the truth" he "will choose a middle course, and suppose
their whole force to be about 25,000 men," (p. 325). Gleig, by the
way, in speaking of the battle itself, mentions one most startling
evolution of the Americans, namely, that "without so much as lifting
their faces above the ramparts, they swung their firelocks by one
arm over the wall and discharged them" at the British. If any one
will try to perform this feat, with a long, heavy rifle held in one
hand, and with his head hid behind a wall, so as not to see the object
aimed at, he will get a good idea of the likelihood of any man in
his senses attempting it.] On the right was posted the Seventh regular
infantry, 430 strong; then came 740 Louisiana militia (both French
Creoles and men of color, and comprising 30 New Orleans riflemen,
who were Americans), and 240 regulars of the Forty-fourth regiment;
while the rest of the line was formed by nearly 500 Kentuckians and
over 1,600 Tennesseeans, under Carroll and Coffee, with 250 creole
militia in the morass on the extreme left, to guard the head of a
bayou. In the rear were 230 dragoons, chiefly from Mississippi, and
some other troops in reserve; making in all 4,700 men on the east
bank. The works on the west bank were farther down stream, and were
very much weaker. Commodore Patterson had thrown up a water-battery
of nine guns, three long 24's and six long 12's, pointing across
the river, and intended to take in flank any foe attacking Jackson.
This battery was protected by some strong earthworks, mounting three
field-pieces, which were thrown up just below it, and stretched from
the river about 200 yards into the plain. The line of defence was
extended by a ditch for about a quarter of a mile farther, when it
ended, and from there to the morass, half a mile distant, there were
no defensive works at all. General Morgan, a very poor militia officer,
[Footnote: He committed every possible fault, except showing lack of
courage. He placed his works at a very broad instead of a narrow part
of the plain, against the advice of Latour, who had Jackson's approval
(Latour, 167). He continued his earthworks but a very short distance
inland, making them exceedingly strong in front, and absolutely
defenceless on account of their flanks being unprotected. He did not
mount the lighter guns of the water-battery on his lines, as he ought
to have done. Having a force of 800 men, too weak anyhow, he promptly
divided it; and, finally, in the fight itself, he stationed a small
number of absolutely raw troops in a thin line on the open, with
their flank in the air; while a much larger number of older troops
were kept to defend a much shorter line, behind a strong breastwork,
with their flanks covered.] was in command, with a force of 550
Louisiana militia, some of them poorly armed; and on the night before
the engagement he was reinforced by 250 Kentuckians, poorly armed,
undisciplined, and worn out with fatigue. [Footnote: Latour, 170.]

All through the night of the 7th a strange, murmurous clangor arose
from the British camp, and was borne on the moist air to the lines
of their slumbering foes. The blows of pickaxe and spade as the ground
was thrown up into batteries by gangs of workmen, the rumble of the
artillery as it was placed in position, the measured tread of the
battalions as they shifted their places or marched off under
Thornton,--all these and the thousand other sounds of warlike
preparation were softened and blended by the distance into one
continuous humming murmur, which struck on the ears of the American
sentries with ominous foreboding for the morrow. By midnight Jackson
had risen and was getting every thing in readiness to hurl back the
blow that he rightly judged was soon to fall on his front. Before
the dawn broke his soldiery was all on the alert. The bronzed and
brawny seamen were grouped in clusters around the great guns. The
creole soldiers came of a race whose habit it has ever been to take
all phases of life joyously; but that morning their gayety was tempered
by a dark undercurrent of fierce anxiety. They had more at stake
than any other men on the field. They were fighting for their homes;
they were fighting for their wives and their daughters. They well
knew that the men they were to face were very brave in battle and
very cruel in victory [Footnote: To prove this, it is only needful
to quote from the words of the Duke of Wellington himself; referring,
it must be remembered, to their conduct in a friendly, not a hostile
country. "It is impossible to describe to you the irregularities and
outrages committed by the troops. They are never out of sight of their
officers, I might almost say, out of sight of the commanding officers
of the regiments that outrages are not committed... There is not an
outrage of any description which has not been committed on a people
who have uniformly received them as friends." "I really believe that
more plunder and outrages have been committed by this army than by
any other that ever was in the field." "A detachment seldom marches...
that a murder, or a highway robbery, or some act of outrage is not
committed by the British soldiers composing it. They have killed
eight people since the army returned to Portugal." "They really forget
every thing when plunder or wine is within reach."]; they well knew
the fell destruction and nameless woe that awaited their city should
the English take it at the sword's point. They feared not for themselves;
but in the hearts of the bravest and most careless there lurked a
dull terror of what that day might bring upon those they loved.
[Footnote: That these fears were just can be seen by the following
quotations, from the works of a British officer, General Napier,
who was an eye-witness of what he describes. It must be remembered
that Ciudad Rodrigo, Badajos, and San Sebastian were friendly towns,
only the garrisons being hostile. "Now commenced that wild and
desperate wickedness which tarnished the lustre of the soldiers'
heroism. All, indeed, were not alike, for hundreds risked and many
lost their lives in striving to stop the violence; but the madness
generally prevailed, and as the worst men were leaders here, all
the dreadful passions of human nature were displayed. Shameless
rapacity, brutal intemperance, savage lust, cruelty and murder,
shrieks and piteous lamentations, groans, shouts, imprecations, the
hissing of fires bursting from the houses, the crashing of doors and
windows, the reports of muskets used in violence, resounded for two
days and nights in the streets of Badajos. On the third, when the
city was sacked, when the soldiers were exhausted by their own
excesses, the tumult rather subsided than was quelled." (Vol. iii,
377). And again: "This storm seemed to be a signal from hell for
the perpetration of villainy which would have shamed the most ferocious
barbarians of antiquity. At Rodrigo intoxication and plunder had
been the principal object; at Badajos lust and murder were joined
to rapine and drunkenness; but at San Sebastian the direst, the most
revolting cruelty was added to the catalogue of crimes--one atrocity,
of which a girl of seventeen was the victim, staggers the mind by
its enormous, incredible, indescribable barbarity... a Portuguese
adjutant, who endeavored to prevent some wickedness, was put to death
in the market-place, not with sudden violence from a single ruffian,
but deliberately, by a number of English soldiers.... and the disorder
continued until the flames, following the steps of the plunderer,
put an end to his ferocity by destroying the whole town." Packenham
himself would have certainly done all in his power to prevent excesses,
and has been foully slandered by many early American writers. Alluding
to these, Napier remarks, somewhat caustically: "Pre-eminently
distinguished for detestion of inhumanity and outrage, he has been,
with astounding falsehood, represented as instigating his troops to
the most infamous excesses; but from a people holding millions of
their fellow-beings in the most horrible slavery, while they prate
and vaunt of liberty until all men turn in loathing from the sickening
folly, what can be expected?" (Vol. v, p. 31.) Napier possessed to
a very eminent degree the virtue of being plain-spoken. Elsewhere
(iii, 450), after giving a most admirably fair and just account of
the origin of the Anglo-American war, he alludes, with a good deal
of justice, to the Americans of 1812, as "a people who (notwithstanding
the curse of black slavery which clings to them, adding the most
horrible ferocity to the peculiar baseness of their mercantile spirit,
and rendering their republican vanity ridiculous) do, in their general
government, uphold civil institutions which have startled the crazy
despotisms of Europe."] The Tennesseeans were troubled by no such
misgivings. In saturnine, confident silence they lolled behind their
mud walls, or, leaning on their long rifles, peered out into the
gray fog with savage, reckless eyes. So, hour after hour, the two
armies stood facing each other in the darkness, waiting for the light
of day.

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